10 Must Known Facts About Ripple

What is Ripple?

Ripple is an open source peer-to-peer decentralized cryptocurrency which employs RippleNet as a payments network and allows users to trade any currency in the world. Ripple is one of the early starters in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and currently ranks #3 in cryptocurrency marketcap charts. For latest Ripple price click here, lets move to Facts about Ripple.

Facts About Ripple

1. Originally named as Opencoin, Ripple (XRP) was founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb and is based in San Francisco, California. Opencoin was later renamed to Ripple Labs in 2015.

2. Although, Ripple calls itself a decentralized digital currency. In real terms it is much more centralized than other cryptocurrencies as 50% of Ripple (50 billion) currency is held by the company.

5. Unlike other cryptocurrencies which seem to be disruptors, Ripple acts as the enabler of existing fiat currency based financial system. They already boast of 100+ established customers and 75+ deploying RippleNet services commercially. MoneyGram, American Express, Standard Chartard, MUFG, RBC, UBS, Santander, Axis Bank are a few of many big names in the field of finance who are using Ripple services. Recognition and trust from the global financial industry makes Ripple one of the most stable and strongest player in the field of cryptocurrencies.

6. Ripple uses open source Rippple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) also called Ripple protocol which is implemented in C++ programming language. Unlike Proof of Work (PoW) used by Bitcoin, Ripple implements Consensus algorithm for speed and scalability.

7. Compared to other cryptocurrencies, Ripple provides extremely fast and scalable services. For a comparison, Ripple transaction settles in just 4 sec where as Ethereum in 2+ mins, Bitcoin in 1+ hrs and traditional systems in 3-4 days. As of July 2017, Ripple network can handle 50,000 transactions per second which is amazing.

Ripple Transaction Speed

8. Ripple is not mineable as all ripples have already been created by the company. Out of 100 billion Ripples only 50 billion have been circulated in the open market. Due to zero mining need Ripple network uses miniscule power for operation compared to Bitcoin.

9. In Jan, 2018 Ripple price reached an all time high of $3.84. With a total marketcap of $120 billion, it replaced Ethereum from Rank #2 on marketcap charts. During the same time, although for a short time Chris Larsen, the cofounder of Ripple became the 5th wealthiest person in the world replacing Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook Founder).

10. In 2013, Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb parted from Ripple and founded Stellar which is currently the strongest competitor to Ripple.